The Soviet Union started World War II with the largest force of aircraft and tanks in the world. In fact, with over 14,000 combat aircraft and 24,000 tanks, the Red Army had as many tanks as the rest of the world combined and more aircraft than any two other air forces in the world. It may seem odd to discover that the same force that was so wellequipped with modern weapons also maintained the largest force of horse cavalry in the world, and maintained it right up to the end of the war.

There were several reasons for the Soviet emphasis on horse cavalry in the 1930s and 40s. First, there was the practical experience of the Russian Civil War, in which large mounted forces and been decisive in several campaigns. Horse cavalry had shown remarkable strategic mobility, and cavalry had enough tactical mobility to make up for lack of firepower.

Second, Soviet doctrine as developed in the 1929 and 1936 regulations emphasized strikes in great depth to disrupt and dominate the enemy's rear area. Early tanks and trucks were so mechanically unsound that they could not be trusted to make a deep strategic strike without breaking down. Horses, at least until the late 1930s, actually had greater strategic mobility than mechanized forces, and could operate over a wider range of terrain. Third, the Soviet Union had lots of horses. There was also a large pool of men in the North Caucasus and Central Asia districts, people with a long tradition of mounted warfare, who had grown up riding horses.

By 1939 the Soviet Army had 23 cavalry divisions and 7 cavalry corps headquarters. These prewar divisions were large, as mounted formations go. Each division had 4 cavalry regiments of 4 squadrons, plus a machine gun squadron and a mechanized regiment with 64 BT "fast tanks" (designed to accompany the cavalry) and 18 armored cars. Fire support, other than the armor, was limited to one battalion of 12 76mm horse artillery and a battalion of 6 light AA guns. Nevertheless, with 9224 men, 82 armored vehicles, and 132 guns and (mostly light) mortars, this was very strong for a cavalry unit in any army.

The mounted force continued to expand even after the Second World War started in 1939. By May 1940, at its peak, there were 32 cavalry divisions and 5 mountain cavalry divisions-smaller formations with only three cavalry regiments and no armored regiment. Unlike the rifle divisions outside the Far Eastern Front, virtually all the cavalry units were kept at full-strength in peacetime, so that over 10% of the manpower of the Soviet Army was in the cavalry. Then came the Battle of France.

Using "lessons" learned from the Spanish Civil War, the Soviets had disbanded their last large armored formations in November 1939. The destruction of the Allied armies in France by deep panzer strikes quickly revised the lessons. In June 1940 the Red Army began forming tank divisions. Shortly after, these were combined with 8 existing mechanized divisions to form mechanized corps.

Several cavalry divisions were converted or used as base units for the new 1940 tank divisions. Given that the new mechanized corps were designed to perform the same strategic function-deep strikesas the cavalry, this made sense. In 1941 another 20 mechanized corps started organizing. Coupled with the Soviet military's great expansion since 1939 (125+ new rifle divisions, for instance) the Red Army started to run out of manpower. Consequently, by June 1941 the bulk of the prewar cavalry force had been disbanded. When the Germans attacked on 22 June 1941 the Red Army had 9 regular and 4 mountain cavalry divisions left. While this was much less than the Soviet cavalry at its peak, it was still far and away the largest mounted force in the world.

Like the rest of the Red Army, the cavalry formations were stripped down after the German attack. The new wartime cavalry divisions, formed starting in July 1941, were only a third the prewar size. With only 3447 men in 3 cavalry regiments and a horse artillery battery, these new formations could be quickly raised and thrown into battle. Indeed, during 1941 the Soviets formed over 80 new cavalry divisions, plus several militia cavalry formations. Besides making the best use of a large pool of mounted reservists, the cavalry force provided the Red Army's only strategic strike force in 1941.

The early German victories were crushing, obliterating the Red Army's planned prewar striking forces. By 15 August not one mechanized corps was left intact. Soviet tank divisions literally unraveled as they attempted to counter-attack German spearheads.

The Long-Range Bomber force (DBA), the "deep strike" formations of the Soviet Air Force, lost over half its aircraft by September. By October the DBA had 5 weak bomber divisions left out of the original 11 in the west. By 1 December the Red Army had only 7 tank divisions left out of 73 formed.

The cavalry divisions and corps were the only force left that could operate independently and deep in the enemy rear. The tank brigades formed from August on were too fragile, with no supporting units at all and highly unreliable vehicles, and there were virtually no motorized units left larger than a reinforced regiment (for example, of the 3 Guards motorized divisions, only one was larger than a remnant). Horse cavalry was the only tool left to carry out the Soviet Army's strategic and operational doctrine.

This they did, as much as their strength allowed. Most of the cavalry operations resembled large scale raids rather than true strategic thrusts. Starting with 2nd Cavalry Corps against Army Group South in August-September, and throughout the winter counteroffensive of 1941-42, cavalry corps or "groups" of Corps size appeared everywhere the Soviets attempted to penetrate deep into the German rear. Tank and ski forces, when they were formed into "Mobile Operations Groups", were most often used for attacks in conjunction with the frontline infantry.

Of course, cavalry is only a poor substitute for armored formations. Except where terrain gives the cavalry an advantage, such as in swamp or forest where armor cannot operate effectively, cavalry proved very vulnerable. So much so that by the late winter of 1941-42 the Soviets grouped the remaining cavalry divisions into 12 regular and 3 Guards cavalry corps. At that time there were just 44 cavalry divisions left out of over 90 formed since the war started.

As new tank corps and tank armies took over the strategic functions during 1942 and 1943, the cavalry forces shrank further. By 1943 only the seven Guards cavalry corps were left, with only 17 Guards and 9 regular cavalry divisions in the entire army, including the Far East and Central Asia. Late in the war the cavalry corps were usually paired with a mechanized or tank corps in a "Cavalry-Mechanized Group" to exploit breakthroughs in rough terrain.

Now, after that extremely abbreviated review of the historical Soviet cavalry, how does it relate to Europa? Specifically, how does it relate to FitE/SE?

Currently, the prewar Soviet cavalry divisions, in all the games they appear (including the new First to Fight) are 4-3-8 or 5-4-8 Cav XX. The Mountain Cavalry divisions are 3-2- 8 Mtn Cav XX (W), while the wartime "lightff cavalry divisions are 3-8 Cav XX. Guards cavalry divisions are 5-4-8 Cav XX, and under Rule 39D1 in FitE/SE Guards cavalry may be "upgraded" with Armor RPs to give them a limited (1/2 Movement Allowance) exploitation ability, but no extra AEC/ATEC, or combat factors.

Comparison

Based on the prewar doctrine and the wartime employment of Soviet cavalry, how realistic are these provisions?

First, the counters are almost all too strong in combat factors. The prewar cavalry division's attack strength of 5 makes it the equivalent of a strong Soviet rifle division: 5-6. But the rifle division has both a howitzer regiment with 12x 152mm and 12x 122mm howitzers, plus a light artillery regiment with 12x 122mm and 24x 76mm weapons, plus 12 more regimental 76mm guns and 12 120mm mortars.

Compared to the cavalry division's 12x 76mm cannon and 16 light regimental guns, this is a tremendous firepower difference, even when we ignore the fact that the rifle division has 3-4 times more machine guns and more rifles. The wartime light cavalry division has the same combat strength (3-8) as a 1941 rifle division (3-6) which had 3 times the artillery (44x 76mm guns) and 4 times the automatic weapons.

In addition, the sizes of the units are not accurate. The big prewar cavalry division, with 9000+ men, is still smaller than a "small" infantry division, like the Italian 2-regiment divisions (11-12,000 men) and even with the mechanized regiment the cavalry division has less wheeled/heavy equipment than any regular rifle/infantry division. In fact, on the eve of war in June 1941 the average cavalry division had only about 6000 men. And so, at their best the prewar units are only about half the size of the smallest 3-RE infantry division.

The wartime units are all much too small to be "divisions" in the Europa sense. At 3447 to 4500 men, they are actually smaller than full-strength Soviet rifle brigades (4800-6500 men). Even the Guards cavalry divisions of the late war are about the size of a British Brigade Group or German Kampfgruppe-assuming the Guards division was at full strength, which was rarely true.

Finally, the capabilities of the cavalry counters are not in line with their actual combat use. The Soviet cavalry was first and foremost an exploiting and raiding force. Yet, in Europa cavalry has generally no exploiting ability and no way to "hit and run" before the opponent counterattacks.

Thus, Soviet cavalry in FitE/SE winds up as "fast infantry". Giving the relatively lightly-armed cavalry units the same defense factor as rifle units is especially unrealistic. Indeed, no nation in history ever successfully used mounted cavalry as a defensive force for any length of time.

Solved

Luckily, the problems can all be solved relatively easily. Some of the solutions, in fact, have already been introduced in Europa games, and have only to be applied to the cavalry.

First, let's take the size of the units. Wartime cavalry "divisions" are actually brigades, which would make them 1 RE units in Europa. There is a precedent for this, and it's right in FitE/SE already: the Soviet antiaircraft "divisions". These were labeled divisions by the Soviets, but they only consisted of 48x 37mm and 16x 85mm guns, manned by about 3-4000 men.

In SE they are represented by 1-2-6 AA X counters. Since Second Front has introduced the idea of unit sizes marked with a 0 to indicate units that were that size but not actually called that (e.g., division-sized groupings of troops), all the mechanisms are already in place to properly designate the cavalry units.

After modifying combat strengths to indicate the real firepower and the "shock" value of cavalry in the attack, the Soviet cavalry would look something like this:

Prewar Soviet Cavalry Division:
3-2-8* Cav [X]

Prewar Mountain Cavalry Division:
2-1-8* Mtn Cav [X] (w)

Wartime Cavalry Division:
1-8* or 2-1-8* Cav [X]]

Note: Only a very few wartime divisions will justify even 2 attack strength points, as we'll show later.

Wartime Mountain Cavalry Division:
1-8* Mtn Cav [X] (w)

Guards Cavalry Division:
2-1-8* Cav [X]

Note: In late 1942- early 1943 a point of Artillery could be added to each Guards Cavalry Division to upgrade it to:
3-2-8* Cav [X]

There are still a few things to be addressed before the cavalry is "right". First, in order to give the horsemen their raiding and exploiting function they must have some kind of movement in the Exploitation Phase. Personally, I think that allowing a cavalry formation to move up to 1/2 its printed movement factor is about right. Four MPs Q MPs for militia) does not give them an enormous ability to exploit, given ZOC costs, but it does allow them to "hit and run" or exploit a hole, if someone bigger can blow a hole large enough for them.

Also, if several cavalry divisions can get loose in rough country behind the German lines their mobility gives them enormous "nuisance" value. Since this is precisely their greatest function during the 1941-42 winter counter-offensive, I can't help thinking this would be all to the good.

All of the above would seem to take care of the cavalry divisions, but what about the cavalry corps? as early as July 1941 the Soviets grouped 2-3 cavalry divisions into "Cavalry Groups" to operate as corps units, and formed regular cavalry corps in Jan 1942, and put out doctrinal guidance that called for cavalry divisions to always act together under a corps headquarters-single divisions were judged too "fragile" for independent operations. Given that 50% of the cavalry divisions had already been destroyed less than 6 months after they were formed, this decree is understandable.

To avoid cluttering up the counter-sheets with a lot of varied counters, we can standardize the cavalry corps or cavalry group of 1941-early 1942 at one-size-fits-all: a three-division unit which will be divisional size. The first Group appears in Jul 41, while the bulk of the Cavalry Corps HQ were formed in Jan I 42:

6-4-8 Cav XXX representing the 2nd Cavalry XXX in Odessa Military District at the start of the war. 5th and 9th Cavalry Divisions of this corps operated together throughout Jun-Nov 1941, until they were made Guards. The other prewar Cavalry Corps never operated together at prewar strength: 3rd Corps in Kiev Special Military District was split between the frontier and the reserves, and 6th Cavalry Corps in Western Special Military District was shot to pieces within 48 hours after the war started.

The 2nd Cavalry Corps is a fragile unit; if reduced to (2-1-8) cdr, it can only be rebuilt to 4-3-8, like the other wartime cavalry corps.

4-3-8 Cav XXX, representing both the cavalry groups and the cavalry corps of 1941-42.

6-3-8 Cav XXX numbered 1, 2, 3 (Gds). These counters are Available for Assembly in Jan I 42.

In spring 1943 (Apr I 43, to be exact) the (Gds) cavalry corps may be upgraded to:

9-6-8 Cav XXX (Gds)

These counters are Available for Upgrade as follows:

1x 6-3-8 (Gds) Cav XXX, plus 3 arm RPs.

Given that the upgraded Guards cavalry corps include some 99 tanks or self-propelled guns in a force of 18- 21,000 men, you could argue that they deserve some AEC. I would make it no more than 1/3 AECA/AECD, given the number of highly unarmored horses still in the unit.

Vulnerability

Finally, something has to be said about another horse cavalry characteristic. Horses tend to be very vulnerable to modern firepower. Soviet cavalry divisions in the Stalingrad operation lost 65-80% of their strength in successful actions during the exploitation after 5th Tank Army's breakthrough in November.

As already mentioned, over half the wartime cavalry divisions were utterly destroyed within a few months after they were formed, and at least two of the big prewar divisions, the 6th and 36th of the 6th Cavalry Corps in the Western Military District, were destroyed in the first days of the war by air attack alone.

Again, there is a fairly simple mechanism to reflect this: whenever figuring losses to horse cavalry units, use their defense strength for all calculations. This will practically double their losses in any offensive action, which seems to be about right based on the historical record.

And there you have it. Using the new counter strengths and sizes, the limited exploitation, the cavalry corps, and the defense strength casualties, your Red Cavalry should reflect its historical strengths and weaknesses. They aren't much for holding the line, but if MG Belov or Dovator get loose behind AG Mitte in December with 2-3 Cav [X] each, the German player may find himself reaching for the big bottle of aspirin before the winter is out.

What follows is the Soviet Order of Battle for cavalry units when playing FitE/SE. It includes the new strengths for all cavalry units, as well as some changes and additions due to more recent research into unit histories since the last printed version of the Soviet Order of Battle for The Urals was done in 1989.

Note: Where units appear in parentheses: (32, 43, 47) they represent the historical designations of the units involved. It is not necessary to match designations as long as the unit types and strengths are correct.

Soviet Cavalry Order of Battle